


So Much More

by i_write_shakespeare_not_disney



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst, One Shot, Tumblr Prompt, more fluff than anything
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-31
Updated: 2018-01-31
Packaged: 2019-03-11 19:52:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13531368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/i_write_shakespeare_not_disney/pseuds/i_write_shakespeare_not_disney
Summary: Ever since the Voltron on Ice shows began, Hunk has been acting significantly different. And while people aren't really a strong suit, Pidge has to try and comfort him like he's done so often for the rest of them. And maybe, she might just possibly find out something else about herself along the way... maybe.





	So Much More

The day had been filled with what Coran liked to call “tours.” After their little shows, the group- or as Coran called them, “the cast”- would step out for pictures and talking to “fans” and the whole celebrity thing.

Lance seemed to enjoy it enough, getting pictures with all types of aliens that fawned over him. Some even cried for him. Shiro only had to stand there and look tough, albeit uncomfortable, and Allura just brooded beside him, which Coran allowed since it fit her “character.”

Pidge had been surrounded by children who begged for her autograph and tugged and asked about technology and the made up words she was given which they thought was real. She would’ve been annoyed and tried to correct them if it weren’t for the many hopeful, awed faces looking at her and saying, “When I grow up, I wanna be like you!”

Although, it wasn’t so easy for all of them. Each time they got back to the castle, Pidge noticed Hunk would disappear into his room, not to be seen until the next day.

That day seemed particularly rough because Hunk had actually left the meet and greet earlier than they were supposed to, which sent Coran into a tirade. Pidge let Shiro deal with that while she went in search of her best friend.

She got to his door and knocked gently. “Hunk? Can I come in?”

It was a while before she heard a response. “I’m not feeling too well, actually.” He sounded muffled and his voice was shaky. Hearing it broke Pidge’s heart. “I think I caught something with all the new places. I’m just gonna rest.”

“Oh. O-okay.” She stepped back from the door, waiting. Sure enough after a decent time in which Hunk must’ve thought she’d be gone, she heard the heaving sigh and choked sobs. Hunk wasn’t someone who cried a lot. He was someone who was very expressive but he made the most out of everything. He was always joyful, he was always that voice of mediation between disputes. He smiled and hugged and shared his affection and sometimes he got scared or he freaked out, but he didn’t _cry._

“Pidge? What are you-?”

“ _Sh!”_ She rammed into Lance, shoving him back, away from Hunk’s door.

“What the heck, man?” he cried out.

She sighed and pointed with her thumb. “Something’s wrong with Hunk. And I don’t know how to figure out what it is or how to help him.”

Lance looked back over to Hunk’s door and frowned, his eyebrow furrowed worriedly. “You ask, Pidge.” He walked past her, heading for the door, but Pidge yanked him back by the arm. “Ow! Jeez, you’re freakishly strong for your size.”

She rolled her eyes. “He’s crying, Lance.” Lance’s face fell. “This isn’t… he won’t even let me in.”

Lance sighed and bit his lip. Suddenly, he perked up and snapped his fingers. “Got an idea. Come on.”

For the next about half hour, Lance and Pidge were fumbling around the kitchen trying to perfect the dough for the scaultrite cookies Hunk made. Eventually, they managed something along the lines of a decent cookie. For the half hour after that, they made a proper batch and waited for them to bake.

As they pulled them out of the oven, Pidge fidgeted and took a breath. “Uh, Lance?” He looked over at her and raised an eyebrow. “Do you mind if… I talk to him first?”

“But I helped make the cookies,” he pouted.

“I know, I know,” she said. “But…. I just…. I want to….” Pidge felt her face heat up as she searched desperately for the words that wouldn’t come. She didn’t know how to explain it, she didn’t really know why, she just… wanted to talk to him alone first. She wanted to be able to be there for him without someone else guiding her for once. “I’m good at computers and data,” she said staring angrily at the counter. “I want to be good at being a friend too.”

“Sure, that’s all it is,” Lance said with a smirk. She looked at him slightly annoyed, but also confused and… a little nervous? He held his hands up in defeat and laughed. “Look, I get it. It’s cool. Just tell him he can talk to me, okay? And that I care about him.”

Pidge furrowed her eyebrows and nodded, taking the tray of cookies. “Yeah, okay.” She turned away and started for Hunk’s room, knocking again. No response. She tried again. “Hunk? You awake?” No answer. “Um… I have cookies.” Nothing. She sighed and shut her eyes, trying to keep her composure. “Hunk, I know that something’s wrong. Please talk to me.”

Just before she tried to knock again, the door slid open and Pidge found herself looking up at Hunk who looked… unlike himself. “Cookies?” he questioned, looking at the plate in confusion.

“Lance and I tried our best to make them without your guidance. I can’t promise they’re great, but… it’s the thought that counts?”

Hunk’s eyes went from the plate to hers, and he nodded. “Yeah. Definitely.” No smile. No chuckle.

Pidge’s stomach was beginning to knot uncomfortably. “You were… crying earlier.” Hunk didn’t answer, but he sat on his bed and hugged his pillow, staring at the ground. Pidge made her way over to him, placing the plate of cookies on the edge of the bed. She stood in front of him and began to wring her hands together. “What’s going on, Hunk? Are you-”

“No. I’m not okay.”

Pidge gulped. She wished he would look at her. She wished he would meet her eyes and smile and stand up and… be okay. But he wasn’t. Which meant Pidge had to be there for him because she was his friend, because she cared about him.

“Okay. That’s okay,” she said. Hunk hugged his pillow tighter. “You wanna tell me why?” Jeez, she was bad at this. The rest of her family was great at consoling people. Matt always made her feel better, her father always managed to make the bad things look better, and her mom always managed to make her smile and laugh. Pidge was the only one who couldn’t console a person without sounding stupid. And she hated sounding stupid.

Like that stupid script from the show.

The show.

Oh, _duh._

“It’s the Voltron propaganda, isn’t it?”

Hunk sighed and curled into himself. “I’m a joke, Pidge. At first… whatever it was kind of funny. I’m a sucker for comedy like that. But then… that’s all I was doing, just tripping and farting and…. We go out to greet everyone and they’re all just laughing and making fart noises, I’ve even been asked to trip on command like I was a dog or something, I-” He cut off, taking a deep breath. “It makes me feel like that’s all I can be. I’m just the funny, clumsy guy who likes food.”

“Hunk, no!” she snapped, a little too angrily. He raised his head, his eyes swimming with tears that hadn’t yet fallen, and the sight made Pidge panic. She began speaking without really thinking through her words- word vomit.  “That isn’t true at all, and we all know it, okay? You are smart, okay, and brave and strong and you’re a freaking paladin of Voltron! You’re the one that’s always making the rest of us feel better, or feel at home. When we were at the Garrison, you were the one who seemed more excited to be my friend than Lance, and when Lance gets homesick, you’re there with comfort food, and letting him ramble on to you about everything, but you don’t just let him talk, you _listen._ And when we found out Keith was Galra, you were more supportive than most of us, like you didn’t even blink because you just knew that… You just see good things in people no matter what. You’re so observant and you care so much about us all that you didn’t rat me out even though you knew I was a girl, and you always have Lance’s back, and-” She ran a hand through her hair and shook her head. She couldn’t stop spewing memories, even if they weren’t even in a timeline, and she had no idea if she was making sense, but she had to speak because she needed Hunk to smile again, and she would figure out how to make that happen if it meant she stayed there talking with him all night. “You’re like, the only one who doesn’t make me feel like a freak, besides Matt, when I talk about science and math. You talk like me, and you get excited with me, and it’s validating, and you stay up with me and help me figure things out, and you’ve defended me so many times during a battle, like it’s part of you to protect your friends, and I don’t think there’s anything braver than that, Hunk. You’re not some joke, you-”

Large hands grabbed her arms and she gasped, looking at him in shock. “Hey, I thought _I_ was the one having a breakdown,” he teased softly, a small smile on his lips. Not quite a Hunk smile, but a smile nonetheless.

“You are,” she said. “I just… rambling. I had to ramble. Because you shouldn’t ever think that you’re just some joke, okay? You wouldn’t be a paladin if that were true.”

“I know. At least, logically, I… I can recognize that. It’s just that with how weird Coran’s been and the reactions from the audiences…. It doesn’t _feel_ like it.” His brown eyes met her amber ones and he raised an eyebrow, one corner of his mouth quirking upward. “So you think I’m brave and strong and-” She groaned and rolled her eyes, which made him laugh. Pidge didn’t even care that she felt embarrassed. She was just glad to hear his laugh. “I had no idea you thought so highly of me.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t think any of us really go out of our way to tell you…. And I’m sorry for that.”

Hunk didn’t answer, but his hands slid down to take hers, making her feel even smaller. But it felt nice too. Safe. She looked at him and felt like she’d been hit by a million bricks.

_Oh._

That’s what Lance meant…. She felt her entire face heat up as she felt the strange little flutter in her stomach and the rapid beating of her heart pounded through her body so obnoxiously, she was certain Hunk could hear it.

“It’s okay,” he said. “It’s just… not the first time I get teased you know? I thought that it stopped and for a while it did…. Now it’s just all coming back and….” He slouched forward, his forehead resting on her stomach and his arms draped loosely around her. She tried to keep her breaths levelled as her hands tangled in his hair and she was suddenly overwhelmed by the scent of him- sweet and soft like cinnamon and gingerbread. “Pidge?” he croaked softly.

“Yeah?” she answered, not trusting her voice to be above a whisper.

“I really don’t want to be alone….”

“I’m here,” she assured. “I’ll stay as long as you need me. I think it’s your turn to be protected.”

He chuckled and sniffed as his arms tightened around her.


End file.
